PPP, PDI urged to accept offer on vote trading

PPP, PDI urged to accept offer on vote trading

JAKARTA (JP): The government continued its bid yesterday to
increase the number of Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) seats in
the House of Representatives, suggesting that the credibility of
the country's political system would otherwise suffer.

Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said yesterday the PDI and
the United Development Party (PPP) should put national interests
before their own and retract their earlier refusals to allow vote
trading among the parties.

"Increasing the PDI's number of seats in the House is needed
to sustain the country's political process," Moerdiono told
reporters.

He stressed that a consensus should be reached among the
parties before the winning party, Golkar, could grant its excess
votes to the PDI so that it could get more seats.

Moerdiono conceded that electoral law did not cover post-
election vote-trading agreements.

The proposal to increase the PDI's number of seats came from
Golkar's chairman, Harmoko. Provisional results of the May 29
election show that Golkar has won 325 seats in the House, PPP 89
and PDI 10 after the calculation of 115 million ballots.

With ballot counting almost at an end, it seems unlikely that
the PDI can obtain additional seats to meet the minimum
requirement for representation in the House.

The House's internal regulations imply that a party must have
at least 13 legislators to have at least one representative in
the House's leadership, a party leader and a representative in
each of the House's 11 commissions.

The PPP and PDI have rejected the proposed vote tradeoff.

Moerdiono said Golkar's offer of seats should not be
considered as a "token of pity" for the PDI's poor election
results.

The offer of additional seats was not meant to ensure the
entry of PDI chairman Soerjadi and deputy chairwoman Fatimah
Achmad, he said.

Political observers said earlier that granting votes for
additional seats would put the two PDI officials in the House for
the next five-year term.

Moerdiono dismissed yesterday allegations that the government
had rigged the vote grant offer.

"We do not play around with democracy. We are serious in
upholding democratization in the country," he said.

The PPP reiterated yesterday its opposition to Harmoko's
proposal to grant Golkar's excess votes to PDI.

"We decided in a meeting (Wednesday) that post-election vote
grants are unacceptable," PPP secretary-general Tosari Wijaya
said yesterday.

He said Golkar must bear the responsibility if the public
claimed that any vote grant was legally unacceptable.

"We call on the Supreme Court and the Attorney General to
remind the government and Golkar that the plan is unlawful," he
said.

He suggested that the House revise its internal regulations so
that vote grants were unnecessary. The House should, for
instance, reduce the number of its commissions to ten.

Golkar leader in the House Moestahid Astari said Tosari's
suggestion was worth considering.

The National Commission on Human Rights has said that vote
grants violate voters' basic rights.

"Transferring Golkar's and PPP's votes to PDI without voters'
consent is unlawful," commission member Marzuki Darusman said
yesterday. (imn/amd)